Anti Critical Race Theory House Bill Limits Texas Educators

Texas law, HB3979, is yet another heinous bill signed by Gov. Greg Abbott that aims to prohibit critical race theory in education. The law states that “no teacher shall be compelled by a policy of any state agency, school district, campus, open-enrollment charter school, or school administration to discuss current events or widely debated and currently controversial issues of public policy or social affairs.” The House Bill continues to state that “teachers who choose to discuss current events or widely debated and currently controversial issues of public policy or social affairs shall, to the best of their ability, strive to explore such issues from diverse and contending perspectives without giving deference to any one perspective.” Meaning that opposing perspectives must be integrated into lessons regardless of their immorality. Can you imagine being an educator tiptoeing through curricula and instruction under the confines of this bill especially when covering historical and current events that distinctly have a group that is the oppressor and a group that is oppressed? This House Bill was conceived as a method to restrain the introduction and instruction of race-related history in schools, which has left many educators stumbling in navigating the application of this law, with some administrators and districts already operating in its extremities. The bill further states that no person “shall be required to engage in training, orientation, or therapy that presents any form of race or sex stereotyping or blame on the basis of race or sex”, which poses the question of what will happen with diversity and inclusivity training?  

“Multiculturalism compels educators to recognize the narrow boundaries that have shaped the way knowledge is shared in the classroom It forces us all to recognize our complicity in accepting and perpetuating biases of any kind” -Bell Hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom